1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus, and is suitable for application to an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which includes a hand-free remote controller which is wirelessly connected to, for example, a cellular phone, and enables voice talking.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-111831 discloses an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which enables a user to talk on a cellular phone without holding the cellular phone while driving, for example, a car.
In practice, the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus comprises a control unit which controls the whole in-vehicle hand-free apparatus, and a hand-free remote controller which has wired connection to the control unit, and ensures wireless connection to a cellular phone by wireless communication conforming to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) as wireless communication standard. This apparatus enables a user to talk on a cellular phone or a wired telephone through the hand-free remote controller.
The in-vehicle hand-free apparatus with such a structure permits the hand-free remote controller to be located on a pillar which is positioned near the front of the head of the user sitting at a driver's seat, making it possible to prevent the interruption of wireless communication between the cellular phone and the hand-free remote controller due to an obstacle or the like, and ensure talking without holding the cellular phone.
The in-vehicle hand-free apparatus employing the above-described structure, however, does not confirm the status of the hand-free remote controller as to, for example, whether or not the cellular phone currently performs talking through the hand-free remote controller.
With the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus employing the above-described structure, in particular, no voice talking is carried out in a state where the cellular phone directly connected to the hand-free remote controller in a wireless manner does not establish a call with a base station, i.e., the cellular phone is in a standby mode. It is difficult to make the user recognize whether or not the cellular phone and the hand-free remote controller are properly wirelessly connected to each other (that is, establish synchronization).
The invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the invention to provide an in-vehicle hand-free apparatus which enables a user to easily confirm the status of the in-vehicle hand-free apparatus.